Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Tasty Meal...

I promise that I will post about NYC soon, but I haven't had enough devoted time. With that said, I wanted to post briefly about my dinner last night. A few weekends ago, Mike Brown and I made a ridiculous amount of veal stock (more on that in a later post). All I can say is man this comes in handy. To further set the stage, I ordered some duck products for Jennifer's Christmas with a few bonuses for myself. When I arrived home yesterday, I was greeted with a package from Hudson Valley Farms containing a 1.6 lb Grade A fois gras, 6 confit duck legs, 1 double duck breast, and a 2 lb container of duck fat. I didn't have the time to make anything elaborate, but I had to do something with the duck fat!

In my fridge, I had some flat-iron steak, some white button mushrooms, some of the aforementioned veal stock & duck fat. In my pantry were same potato, shallot & garlic.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Cut steak into desired portions, pat-dry, salt and pepper liberally. Heat skillet over medium high heat, add enough oil to coat bottom of pan and sear/cook steak about 4 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate and put in the oven to keep warm. Saute mushrooms until they brown and give up most of their moisture then set aside. Next saute the shallot for about 30 seconds, then deglaze the pan with the wine until almost dry. Add the veal stock with the mushrooms and reduce until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Add the thyme and swirl in the butter to make the sauce shiny and delicious.

Place potato & about a tablespoon of oil in a microwave safe bowl cover with plastic wrap and vent. Cook 50% power for 6 minutes tossing about mid-way through. Drain. Heat another skillet over medium heat with the duck fat. Add potato and saute until GBD. Add shallot and garlic, cook about 1 minute, then swirl in the cream & a spoonful of mustard, mixing well.

To plate, spoon a little sauce on the plate, top with the meat, then top with more sauce and mushrooms. Serve potato on the side.

1 comment:

Sounds excellent. I agree that having the veal stock around makes a huge difference in meal prep. I roasted a chicken last nite in a Paella pan, then deglazed with white wine, reduced, then added veal stock, reduced, then added butter. Very simple sauce, but amazing flavor. I poured it over roasted root vegetables. We need to split the rest of this veal stock before I end up using it all.